34 comments:

as a child of the 60's I'll have more to say on this later, but for now: Satisfaction was probably the biggest song of the 60's, but the Stones were the greatest rock 'n Roll band of that era. Andrew - there is a great Hollies video of the Hollies. Is Graham Nash the quintessential DB? Yes, but the Hollies were a great band, and that DVD is great! Zombies? Oh yeah Colin Bloodstone and Rod Argent :) No Monkeys, thank you very much. As for the Who and the Kinks-- both incredible bands. Can't disagree with the Jeff Airplane pick, though I like whahere Hot Tuna evolved. Three Dog Night was just a little too "pop" for me. The Beatles ruled the charts for most of the 60's and with good reason, but I kind of liked Norwegian Wood and the Revolver album. Let me add one killer cut: Manfred Mann--Pretty Flamingo. Enough for now.

Jed, I've found that I'm often a fan of tracks that don't end up as the singles or at least the big singles. Sometimes I am, but often I'm not. For example, with the Beatles, my favorite song is "Act Naturally" and then "I've Just Seen a Face." I like all their stuff, but those are the two that really work for me.

I would say that Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton were both iconic, and deservedly so. In 1967, Hendrix released "Are You Experienced?" with the sing "Fire." Hw was, at the time, doing things creatively that nobody else could do. Eric Clapton got his start with John Mayall's blues breakers, went to the Yardbirds, thn Cream. "Crossroads" (taken from the Robert Johnson blues classic "Travelin' Riverside Blues" was huge when I was in college. And speaking of Yardbird Alums, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin were incredible. I suppose "Whole Lotta Love" got people's attention in a big way.

Andrew - I totally agree with your assessments about loving the lesser known tracks. However, there are subtle differences between favorite 5 and top 5, so I've tried to at least recognize the intent. I'll bet many readers of this site DON'T realize "albums" were pretty much born in the 60's. As a little kid, I'd play my dad's 78 rpm phonographs of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. In the 50's, it was 45 rpm records with the (hopefully) "hit" song and a lesser known "B" side. By the 60's we began to see 33 1/3rd L.P. albums, usually with 6 songs per side. Typically, the hit single from an album was overplayed on radio until you got tired of it. The hidden gems were always found elsewhere. In the latter part of the 60's FM underground radio came along where entire albums would be previewed

Jed, True. There is a difference between top 5 and favorite 5. But I like to think the world should bend to my will and adopt my preferences, so to me they are the same! :P

I did know that about albums. And I'll tell you, I miss them. I have so many albums from the 1960s and 1970s where every song is fantastic. I've tried to buy some albums in the past couple years and they're just awful outside of the singles... just filler.

My father also has a ton of 45s from the 1950s. It's interesting how often the B-sides ended up becoming big hits too.

djskit - I wouldn't disagree about "singles." I would say that all of the Brian Wilson material from Pet Sounds L.P. was special. It had been assume "Good Vibrations would be on that l.p. although to my recollection, it was released separately as a single. Brin Wilson did suffer from compromised mental health. I wonder to how much extent there was a connection to the quality of his compositions. What made the this a special album, and song was effective us of multi-track recording. Though this was hardly the first use of that technique (see murderer Phil Spector and the "wall of sound.") it used it very effectively. Th Hollies DVD I mentiond earlier goes into some good detailabout early multi-track recording BTWThe Beach Boys ruled in the '62-'66 time frame when I was in high school. The whole Jan & Dean California surfer school of pop

Andrew - Vinyl is apparently coming back as a fad. Earlier this year, I sold most of my 60's and 70's L.P.'s for over $400. These were in good shape, and the guy had some very high tech scrubbing equipment, but these were well used records, hardly the pristine still shrink-wrapped never played versions I could see collectors seeking. Admittedly , my copies were generally first editions, some even in highly prized monophonic versions, and reasonably good shape, but they definitely used.

Jed - Don't get me started on Brian Wilson - "Beach Boys Greatest Hits Volume 2" is basically all of his best pre-Pet Sounds stuff that, while hits, were not commercial enough for "top 10" status. It includes "In My Room", "The Warmth of the Sun", "Don't worry Baby","When I Grow Up To Be a Man. I could go on, and on.

And yes, they did all the recording of Pet Sounds on multi-track, but released in mono, beacuse Brian is deaf in one ear!

He recently re-mixed it in Stereo and it is, dare I say, far superior to the orignal.

Jed, Vinyl has been making a comeback for quite a while. They even sell record players in stores again. I like the trend actually. Vinyl just sounds better. It's warmer and richer. Digital music sounds hollow to me. For most modern songs it doesn't matter, but when you get something where the voices matter you really hear it.

For sure, I bet the stereo re-mix is an absolute killer! I'll have to grab it, since it is a seminal album. Andrew, it probably is a bit warmer, although I've never been in a situation to do an A/B comparison test. They used to talk about McIntosh tube amps in the same reverent tones. I'm not saying there is no truth, but in all honesty, I have come to learn that nearly 85% of your aural experience comes from your listening environment. As an example, I have a SACD of Jorma Koukonen's (Jeff Airplane & Hot Tuna) album Country Heart. My home theater was acoustically engineered by one of the top guys in the industry. It is a seven point one system and the pre-amp came with a program to test each speaker using certain generated signals to tweak the system to perfection. I gotta tell you, listen to that, and it will not feel the least bit mechanical or cold.

This whole discussion reminds of a show (for the life of me I can't remember the name of it) I heard of that ran on MTV about 10- 15 years ago. It was a generational thing that featured 3 couples: an older couple from the Woodstock generation; a couple who'd been kids of the 80's; and a pair of teens. They played songs and got everyone's reactions. In this case, they played "Blowin' in the Wind." The Woodstockers talked about the memories it invoked and how important and meaningful the song was for them; the 80's duo mentioned how they had to listen to their parents playing this in the background as they grew up; the teens only said that Dylan sounded like a Muppet.

As for 60's songs, I have VERY little to say. Growing up, I mostly heard them in the car as my parents would only listen to the local oldies station- often in the summer when we were out and about while my brothers and I were out of school. (This also resulted in my impression of 60's music being mostly just summer tunes.)

And that leads to my heathen blasphemy for the day: in all honesty, listening to their work over the radio, I honest-to-God thought the Beatles and Monkees were the same group. Seriously! I couldn't find any difference in their vocals. And after I learned they were different bands, I kept guessing them incorrectly. Whether this is praise for the Monkees in copying the Beatles, or an indictment of the Beatles for having way-too-simple songs and basically being the New Kids On the Block/'N Sync/Justin Biebers of their day, I don't know.

I guess I'd better go take refuge in my bomb shelter for the expected pro-Beatle backlash...

P.S. IMHO, the best musical act to come out of the 60's was without a doubt the Beach Boys. No commentary, no depression, and no messagey-ness. Just plain old, feel-good fun.

(I've also heard through roundabout sources that, while listening to the Beach Boys' work in their studio in Liverpool, Paul looked at John and reportedly said, "If we can't sound this good, we're not going to make it in America." Not sure if this is true or not- it may very well only be hearsay- but it only adds to the legend.)

I will apologize in advance for a brief "off-topic" comment. This is John Wayne week on AMC. The Duke had a small role in a 1962 epic titled "How the West Wa Won." I notice it is on late (10:00 p.m. EDT) tonight. It was a big deal when it came out. Lots of star: Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, George Peppard, and many more.) It played the big movie palaces and sold the souvenir hard back books in the lobby .... it may have even been shot in 70 mm ." I have seen it over the years, and never thought it would translate to 4X3 standard definition t.v. But, with everybody pretty much owning a big screen, and HD or at least up-convert, that may have changed things. If you haven't seen it, and like big sprawling western epics, I'd say it's worth setting your DVR.

Rustbelt, The Monkeys were an attempt to copy the Beatles sound. That's why the sound similar. That said, it's only a couple Beatles albums that sounds similar because the Beatles moved on musically almost album by album and they never sounded the same twice, whereas the the Monkeys only really existed for a very short period. So they basically sound like one Beatles album.

I like Tryanmax & Floyd's lists...I wasn't "allowed" to listen to modern rock in most of the 80's, so I listened to A LOT of "oldies". Which now apprently includes 80's music.

One of my fav's will always be "Last Kiss" by J. Frank Wilson (NOT the abomination of a remake by Pearl Jam) mostly because it was one of those that my mom and dad would sing in the car on road trips when I was a kid. (and "Soldier, Soldier, Would You Marry Me?", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?")

and my absolute favorite is "Puff, the Magic Dragon" (which, despite Lawhawk's insistence, is NOT a drug song - because I said so.) I had a red 8-track in the late 70's and wore out the part of the tape with that song on it...

And I prefer the Monkeys to the Beatles. I know that's sacrilegious, but I really don't get how the Beatles were all that.

Andrew - I suspect a lot of what has been described as "coldness" in digital music is, in actuality, a result of the compression that was used for years, in order to fit content onto discs. In the area of full HD content, you might be surprised at how much of an improvement there is, particularly on high end equipment.